1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, in general, to online computer systems and, more specifically, to access control of concurrent or multiple users using the same account or master ID number.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Online access to a computer or host system is becoming more commonplace with the passage of time, partly because of the availability of several publicly oriented computer access networks, and the Internet. This changing of the way people can get information has created a new field of commerce, i. e., electronic publishing. Whereas materials were traditionally published in hard copy format, there has become a need to make materials available on computer readable media, such as a CD-ROM. Now, much interest is being expressed for online publishing. For example, when a person wants to peruse a certain technical reference book, he might simply log onto the Internet and view the contents of the publication on the video monitor. In some cases, hard copy printouts may be made for appropriate text or graphic portions of the document or book from the online session.
One of the problems associated with this type of publication distribution is the ability to fairly and properly charge the user for using the information. A desirable method would be to charge the user for the ability to access this material, which is much like the charges made when the material is distributed in hard copy or CD-ROM format. This is not very difficult for a single user, i. e., one who has a separate account with the publisher. The user simply registers to use the information and agrees to pay the agreed compensation. With this type of arrangement, no limit is usually placed upon the access time, thus the user is free to peruse the materials as long as he wants. The difficulty comes in when the situation of a concurrent user, or one that gains access simultaneously under a common account, uses the system. Such may be the case at educational institutions and large companies. The institution or company may simply want to have a master account which would allow simultaneous access to the materials by a maximum number of online users, all authorized by the entity to view the publication. For example, a corporate account may allow anyone with proper access in the corporation to view online a particular publication, up to a maximum of twenty users concurrently, or simultaneously. That would be much like charging for selling to the corporation twenty copies of the book or document for unlimited use.
One of the difficulties in establishing this type of online publishing system is in properly permitting and controlling access to the system in a manner consistent with these objectives. This is especially true when dealing with a stateless network, like the Internet's World Wide Web (www), which does not maintain user states of logged in or logged out. In conventional host-based computer networking systems, logged in users and session states are maintained by the involved hosts. The system can control how many login users are allowed at any given time, and users log out when finished. But, when using the HTTP protocol, no user logout activity is supported. Consequently, it is desirable, and it is an object of this invention, to provide an access control system for concurrent users in a stateless network which is effective and usable in access applications which require specific accounting parameters, like online publishing. To this extent, it is also desirable, and a further object of this invention, to provide an access control system which can determine if additional concurrent user logins are permitted, when a user has logged out, and when a user can login if all the available login slots are currently being used.